- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It’s public execution time on this week’s edition of Friday night football.
So how bout them Hawks? 7-0 with a percentage of 176 per cent since Round 8, these guys are certainly quite good at football. Hawthorn have emerged as clear Premiership favourites, and deservedly so in my mind.
Fremantle had me all giddy for a few weeks there, but the champs are the champs for a reason. In the past two weeks, they have dispensed of the first placed and then-third placed Fremantle and Sydney but a combined 161 points.
Over to you…**checks schedule**
Oh. Oh dear. Oh no.
Quick, let’s get last week’s Friday Night Forecast over with.
Prediction: North Melbourne def. Essendon by 36 points.
Actual: North Melbourne def. Essendon by 25 points.
This one was actually quite a bit closer than the final margin suggests, with the two sides ending up with exactly the same number of scoring shots. Indeed, the Bombers were ahead at half time. I don’t know if that says more about Essendon or North Melbourne, actually.
Regardless, it was another four points in the book for the ‘Roos, who continue their epic charge to the sixth seed.
Here’s this week’s Friday Night Forecast.
Carlton v Hawthorn
Friday, 24 July
Bouncedown: 7:50PM (EST)
Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Victoria
Could Carlton do it? An against-the-odds, David versus Goliath, best against the worst victory for the ages?
Nah.
While Carlton have played significantly better since caretaker coach John Barker took over the reigns, there is a chasm between where these two teams are at here and now the size of Great Australian Bite. So this becomes a game of guess the margin, I guess.
One possible wrinkle is the Hawks use this as a bit of a rest stop, sort of like a time trial in Le Tour. Sure, they still need to ride the bike, but there’s no 10 per cent grading to worry about.
I don’t think that’ll be the case. Hawthorn are in full on ‘We’re Better Than You, Deal With It’ mode, as per their most recent victories. When watching last weekend’s game on DVR in the wee hours of Sunday, I tweeted that Hawthorn’s offensive efficiency must be unprecedented; that it’s death by 1,000 cuts, except they’re using chainsaws.
Hawthorn lost the best forward-of-centre player in the past decade, and are scoring just two points less per game than when they had him in brown and gold. Pull Josh Kennedy out of West Coast – or indeed Lance Franklin out of Sydney – and see what happens.
It’s driven by what I’m comfortable calling the most unstoppable offensive system in the modern AFL. As I wrote before the start of the year, in a league where zigging involves the construction of defence first system, Al Clarkson and Co. zagged. Everyone except three key defenders is expected to hit the scoreboard, generate a clearance, move the ball inside 50. The only four players that haven’t kicked a goal for Hawthorn this year (and that have played more than a handful of games) are named Josh, Ben, Brian and James – and Gibbo has kicked three behinds.
In the past seven weeks, Hawthorn have scored almost 120 points per game, and been below 100 points just once. Yeah. Carlton, on the other hand, have put up scores of 53, 41 and 53 in the past three weeks – Hawthorn scored one less points in just over two hours last weekend.
So yeah, do Carlton have a chance? Even a tornado full of sharks is no match for chainsaws. Hawthorn by infinity.
That’s my Friday Night Forecast. What’s yours?